Figure wheel



July 13 1926. 1,592,568

w. G. ORTH FIGURE WHEEL Filed March l9, 1923 2 Sheets-Sheet l FIGURE WHEEL Filed March 19, 1923 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 Patentedululy 13, 1926.

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

WILLIAM a. 0311111, or DAYTON, OHIO, ASSIGNOB TO oimnn. rear: nnersran com- PANY, F DAYTON, OHIO, A CORPORATION 01' NEW YORK.

rreuan'wnnnn.

Application filed larch 19, 1928. Serial No. 628,285.

chine with means for directing attention to one character of such wheel. The charactors on the wheels may be adapted to print on a record or ticket, or to be observed through a suitable sight opening in the ma- Such wheels are ordinarily driven by means associated with their hubs 15 and are periodically reset to an initial 0- sition in order to begin a new computation chine case.

or series of registrations.

it is frequently the totalizer with meanswhereby the char 'acter bearing parts are adjustable with respect to the driving and resetting means, so that the indication furnished by such wheels, when reset td initial position, may be readily varied. Again, for similar reasons, the so called Extras? counter 1 of the taxlmeter may require to be changed to register in different units.

' The object of this invention is to provide a; character wheel in which the character bearing parts are adjustable with respect to the driving means, or to the body part of the wheel.

A further object of the invention is to provide a character iwheel in which the character-bearing parts are adjustable with res t to the resetting means .to as many positions as there are characters upon wheel.

, A further object of theinvention' is to provide acharacter bearing wheel comprising removable character bearing sections.

In computing machines ordinarily, this initial position is the position in which the zero of such wheel is adjacent the sight opening or the printing point; but in such registering devices as charge indicating gas or electric meters, or meters for use on taxicabs, the initial position may be that in which a minimum charge or fare is indicated rather than a zero position. Referring articularly to taximeters, esirable, on account ofchanges in municipal regulations or changes in the business policy of a company, to alter 0 the initial fare, and to this end it becomes 3 desirable to provide one or more wheels'of the A further object of the invention is to provide a taximeter with register wheels which comprise means by which the indication furnished thereby when in initial or reset position may be varied.

In the drawings- Figure 1 represents a side elevation of a form of the invention adapted to be used for a printing wheel. I Figure 2 is a front elevation of said wheel partly in section, said section being taken on the lines 22 of Figure 1.

Figure 3 is a side elevation of a form of the invention adapted to an indicating wheel, which wheel is reset by the rotation of the shaft on which it is carried.

Figure 4 is a front elevation, partly in section, of the same modification, the section being taken on the lines 4-4 of Figure 3.

Figure 5 is a perspective of so much of a taximeter as is necessary to show the application of my invention thereto.

Referring to Fi res 1 and 2, the wheel is arrangedto be riven by the engagement of lugs. with a sleeve (not shown), which sleeve also serves to reset the wheel to initial position. The ln s 10 form a part of the hub of a gear 11 mitted either to or from this particular wheel, it being contemplated that two or y which motion is trans-- three registers will be driven and reset by the same means, as indicated in Figure 5. Such a group of registers, comprising two sets of printing wheels and a set ofindicating wheels, together with means for driving the same from a ground wheel of the vehicle or from a clock, printing mechanism, and

the other details of a taximeter are fully illustrated and described in the patent to Ohmer et al., 1,136,164, April 20,1915. I The character wheels of this invention are especially adapted for use in the machine described in said atent but its use is not limited to this mac ine. Rigid with gear 11 is a disc 12 in the periphery of which are formed one or more recesses 13,,in which are carried rollers 14 spring pressed outwardly by means of springs 15. Looselymounted on the periphery of disc 12 is aring 16' bearing on its outer circumference On the mner clrprinting characters 17.

cumference of ring 16 which rests upon the disc 12 are formed a. series of notches 1,8

vices for all that? re registers.

\ details shown this figure, such as date adapted to receive the spring pressed rollers 14. A disc 19 held by rivets 191, serves to retain the parts of the wheel in the position shown. There is one notch 18-for each of the characters 17, so that the character bearing ring may be locked in as many positions relative to its driving and resetting means as there are diiferent characters upon the same. The springs 15 are of suflicient stillness so that in the normal operation of the machine, the ring 16 will not be displaced relative to the driving means 12, but can be readily adjusted when force is applied with this end in view.

The wheel illustrated in Figs. 3 and 4 is driven by means of a gear 20 which is fastened by rivets 21, to a disc hub 22. A

shoulder 23 on disc 22 supports the web 24- of a drum 25 bearing digits upon its periphery. The adjustment of drum 25 with respect to hub 22 is effected by means of a pawl 26 mounted on the web 24 and pressed by a spring 27 into engagement with one of a series of notches 28 in the circumference of disc 22. The edge of pawl 26 adjacent its pivot is formed with an inclination to about 5, while the opposite edge is raidal to the disc, and the notches 28 are similarly 111- clined. When force is applied to the drum 25 in one direction, thepawl 26 will be dis: placed and slide over the periphery of disc 22 to the adjacent notch, but when force is applied to drum 25 in the reverse direction, pawl 26 in engagement with its notch 28 forms a positive stop. This stop prevents accidental displacement of drum 25 at the termination of the ,resetting operation, but permits the adjustment of drum 25 with respect to its driving means to any desired position. This wheel is designed to be reset by the engagement of pawl 29 with a notch in the resetting shaft 31 (Fig. 5), upon which the wheel is mounted, said pawl being pressed into said notch by spring 30.

In Figure 5 I have illustrated the a plication of my'invention to a taximeter oi the type fully described in the patent to Ohmer et al. above cited. The reading furnished by the indicating wheel 25, 32 and 33 is obscured by blind 34 when the machine is not In hire. The ticket is rinted from the bank of printing wheels 1 35 and 36. A second bank of printing wheels (not shown) is provided for printing the record. Ordinarily it is necessary to apply my invention to only one wheel of each bank; these wheels being shown as wheels 25 and .17. The three groups of'registering wheels are caused to move in unison by gearing, a part of which is shown as gears 11, 38, 39, 40 and 41. The pawl 42, acting on ratchet 43, serves as a common actuating device, and the pawls 29 serve as common resetting de- The other printing wheels 44, transfer mechanism 45,

part of the present mvention. I

The ticket printing wheels are loosely mounted on shaft 37. Also carried by this shaft is a wheel 47 for printing the amount of Extras charges, this wheel being moved in unison with a wheel which indicates the Extras charges as fully described in the patent to Ohmer et al. For the purpose of conveniently Varyin the units in which Extras are charged, the character bearing part of the wheel 47 is formed in arcuate sections 48, each of which is fastened by screw 49 which enters a suitable tapped opening in the body of the wheel 47. Thus when it is necessary to change the rate at which Extras are charged, one set of sections 48 is removed and re laced by another set bearing the desired c aracters.

For efl'ecting such changes in rates as overthrow preventing pawl 46, etc., form no r have been discussed, it was formerly. necessary to dismantle a considerable part of the machine, thus the application of my invention to the taximeter efiects a very considerable saving of labor.

The invention is not to be considered limited to any of the specific embodiments shown in the drawings and described in detail, but is to be construed as covering all equivalent devices falling within the scope of the appendant claims.

I claim 1. A wheel comprising a driving gear, a disc fixed thereto, a character bearing ring fitted about and supported from the peripher of said disc, and means for retaining said character bearing ring and said disc in a pluralit of relative positions.

2. A w eel comprising a gear havin a circular disc fixed thereto, an annular d1 '1; bearing member adapted to fit about t e periphery of said disc, notches in the interior periphery of said annular member and a spring pressed device associated with and disc for yieldin ly retaining said annular member and said gear in any one of a plurality of different relative positions.

3. A wheel comprising a gear having a circular disc fixed thereto, an annular digit bearing member adapted to fit about the periphery of said disc, notches in the interior periphery of said annular member, a recess in the periphery of said disc, a spring roller in said recess adapted to retain said digit bearing member and said gear in a lurality of different relative positions, a iiub portion of reduced diameter on said disc, and a washer fitting over said hub portion adapted to hold said gear and said digit bearin portion against relative longitudinal disp acement.

4. A taximeter coin rising a fare counter, driving means for sea counter, a device for resetting said fare counter to indicate an initial fare, and means other than said driving and resetting means for varying the (indication to which said counter is reset by said resetting means.

5. A taximeter comprising a plurality of counters, a common actuating device for said counters, a common resetting device for restoring said counters to initial position, and means individual to said counters for varying the indications furnished by said counters when in the position to which they are reset by said resetting device.

6. In a taximeter, in combination, a counter comprising a wheel having a character bearing rim, means for resetting said wheel to an initial position, and means for adjusting said character bearing rim reia- WILLIAM G. ORTH. 

